After a long hard day working (me, I telecommute) and a long, hard day playing with friends (my sons, no school today as we live near Boston in the path of that big storm) we relaxed together in the evening eating oatmeal cookies and laughing at the antics of Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom. Fun! And the rest of the cookies will make fine snacks after shovelling snow, sledding, snowshoeing, and other snow-related activities tomorrow...

It sounds that way in my neighborhood during our frequent winter outages, certainly, all that loud humming coming from the neighbors' houses. Candles and a wood-burning stove are more fun, though, so I have not yet succumbed...

I can give you absolutely no advice whatsoever. Boggles the mind. My mother would never have hung out that long, since after raising kids and being a school nurse, she no longer felt the need to be around children for longer than a few hours.

Plus, I am trying to keep family away: my daughter has threatened to come home for spring break, and bring friends; I keep suggesting Florida instead. I just got the house cleaned up from Christmas!

Today in the southeastern US it was dreary, but the other day was like summer, nearly 70 and sunny. Luckily, dreary weather is perfect for going to see AUJ...if it were still playing at a theater closer to home!

She's sort of...in a transitional phase right now, and is thinking about moving to be near us, so she's trying out the "being near" bit now, only it's "near" as in "under the same roof". She really is a big help around the place, and great with our daughter, so I can't really complain... just wish she got along better with the boys!

Dreary days are great for movie-going. Sorry to hear AUJ isn't at a theater near you any more!

I think what you're doing is so important and KIND. Good for you. Enjoy! *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of Andúril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. “Elendil!” he cried. “I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!” TTT, Book III, Chapter 2 And Éomer answered: “Since the day when you rose before me out of the green grass of the downs I have loved you, and that love shall not fail.” RotK, Book VI, Chapter 5

Sorry, but we used to struggle to last a week with my mother in the house. But then she's not the nicest of people, expects everything to revolve around her and rarely lifts a finger to help with anything. (I'm still convinced I was adopted )

I'm late posting on Saturday. Yesterday I had a wonderful massage focusing on some problem areas including my wrist. Thanks for the suggestion, dernwyn! And thanks also to Silverlode & silneldor for your advice last week at Fiesta. I talked to some friends who go to a doctor who likes to use alternative medicine like acupuncture, massage & chiropractors so I'm going to go to him & not have the surgery. I had a bad feeling about it too! I'm so fortunate to have such concerned & informed friends both real & virtual!

Today I had a client who has a baby boy (seven months) and both are living with her mom. So we did both her and her mom's tax returns, trying to figure out how to get the best possible tax returns (biggest refunds within the law). It was very rewarding to finish up with a nice refund for the family. The baby was enormously cute, and he loved holding on to my finger!

Last week I had a client, who I also worked with the previous year. She had a tough situation with a foster daughter last year, and we had to work out how to gather the right documentation so she could prove that she was allowed to claim the foster daugher as a dependent (the birth mother, who had signed away all her maternal rights, was now trying to claim her daughter, even though she did not qualify). I coached my client about collecting her documentation, and she was successful in proving that she deserved to claim the foster daughter as a dependent! It was great to her the outcome of her story, a year later. The foster daughter has moved on now, but my client is happy to be out of that mess.

My clients are in very complex situations, and they don't have the means to hire someone to figure out their tax returns. I love that we can help them, for free, and make such a positive impact on their lives. Plus it's great getting to know them.

Can you hear me through all that white stuff? Special message to all affected TORnfolk!
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The Punky Unctuous One not-from-Philly can be rendered obsolete, if you wish. Cast your vote by using the word 'redundant'. ;)

Hot chocolate -- the good stuff -- for all! We got little snow or rain out of it, but enough fog and plenty of wind. I can't summon a foehn to clear the snow like they get in the Alps; you'll have to ask DanielLB for that! I didn't ask him for any favors. I ordered my own Falkland wool for spinning.

I'm watching the tulips and daffodils grow week by week...if the deer and bunnies will leave them alone. **********************************

NABOUF Not a TORns*b! Certified Curmudgeon Knitting Knerd NARF: NWtS Chapter Member since June 17,2011

and i think dernwyn is finding it so, with her having Nemo, the friendly nor'easter leaving her with 18" of blizzard-mana and no power. Tonight it will be about 10degrees there and so may we all send her warm thoughts.

We had a foot of snow and young sil and i got the snowblower going even though i forgot to drain all the gas out of it, last spring (gas these days has the shelf live of food) Can you tell by this picture who is manning the snowblower?

Also this week the banks 'white glove' appraiser (for a loan) is coming back again this week (having failed me for the tiles on my tub upstairs, which was repaired) and i need to work on 5 other projects (respecting Murphy's Law) before he comes slinking around taking pictures of every room and bathroom again.

I will relate one happening. I have this one spot on the house that has boards that rotted a bit by a down spout , (6sq.ft) and after having cut and ripped out that spot, i was up the ladder in a raging snowstorm at 31 degrees, priming it with a paint brush. And it was getting stiff quick i may add.

I have the appropriate pieces cut and painted in the woodshop waiting for a day to put them up (matter of fact you can see that general spot by finding the ladder in the picture) . That was supposed to be my tranquil May Day project.

I hope everyone is fine out there and warm:) Spring is not too far away.

I'll manage; she's a big help, really! Came home after a day out with the kids and she had dinner on the table for us all. Can't beat that.

Just wish she had some iota of sympathy for hot dwarves...why, after all this time, does she have to be living with us right when I've got a new movie to obsess over? Two weeks ago she graciously agreed to babysit for the evening so NZS and I could go out (a very rare occurrence), and then she asked what movie we were going to (she knew she didn't need to ask, but she did anyways). She rolled her eyes and said I should just go move in to the theater for a week.

However, since I've got a husband I can share all of this with, I really shouldn't complain.

Okay, I know it's entirely different when you're the one trapped by it, stuck in it, freezing from it, and sick of shoveling/blowing it, but still, it's beautiful. Nothing more peaceful than a landscape covered in fresh snow. Looks even better from here given the heat we've been having!

Hang in there and keep remembering spring is just around the corner. And good luck with all the house projects! Looks like you've got a lovely one to be working on.

The appraiser comes in a couple weeks, after I get my door to the den finished. That will add a legal third bedroom to my place, so even though it will be a den for me, that third bedroom will increase the value of my place.

The problem I have in this real estate market is that there are so few sales to use in this market as a comparable. They can only use the last six months of sales, so sometimes the appraiser will go far outside my neighborhood to find the comparables. I'm crossing my fingers that the appraisal comes in OK!

You know, you called right when I was heating up soup and hot water on the camp-stove! Had to get something hot into hubby and Geeky Son after an afternoon of shoveling, then returning to a cold house.

But the power came back on shortly after we'd all retired to the warmth of our beds...so we knew there'd be a warm house and hot showers in the morning! Most of this town is still without power, though. And they've only plowed the side-roads enough for emergency services, so we're still blocked in.

The middle school where hubby works was designed to function as an emergency shelter when needed, so the Red Cross is down there, and the National Guard (we have a training camp in town) has been bringing in folks, mostly elderly, since yesterday morning. Other than the inconveniences, I think everyone here is doing as well as can be.

Any word from those in the Boston area? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love to hear about people doing the right thing just because it's the right thing to do. I'm glad that you and your friends/coworkers have taken this on because there are so many people in need of those services. I have found that there are actually a ton of people willing to help, they just don't know how or where to start. This is a wonderful way for someone with your talents and skill set to really have a positive impact on someone else. Bravo to you! *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of Andúril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. “Elendil!” he cried. “I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!” TTT, Book III, Chapter 2 And Éomer answered: “Since the day when you rose before me out of the green grass of the downs I have loved you, and that love shall not fail.” RotK, Book VI, Chapter 5